BioKyowa's top Cape executive retiring

As president of BioKyowa Inc. in Cape Girardeau, Kohta Fujiwara saw highs and lows -- from the exhilaration of a $100 million expansion to the sharp downturn of product prices that forced him to lay off 40 workers, an experience he remembers as the worst of his life.

Fujiwara, 60, announced Wednesday that he plans to retire at the end of the month as the head of BioKyowa, a plant that produces eight different industrial-grade amino acids and employs 160 people.

"This just seemed like the time to do it," said Fujiwara, who became president of the Cape Girardeau plant on Nash Road in 1998 after coming here from Tokyo. "It's sort of the term I'm supposed to serve in this country."

Fujiwara will stay in the area for a year as an adviser to his replacement, executive vice president Terumi Okada, who has been here since July 2001. After that, Fujiwara plans to return to Japan.

Okada, 52, will take over effective March 1.

"I think Mr. Fujiwara was very focused on what he wanted to do," said plant manager Bill Hinckley. "Along with the people at Kyowa Hakko, the home office, they had a vision of what they wanted BioKyowa to become."

Kyowa Hakko of Tokyo is the parent company of the Cape Girardeau BioKyowa plant. Kyowa Hakko is an leading global supplier to the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, with net sales of $3.3 billion annually.

Fujiwara said he was sent here in 1998 to help lead the company through a $100 million expansion to increase production of what was then its main product -- the amino acid L-lysine monohydrochloride, which was used in swine and poultry feed. The expansion also included the addition of new products.

At first, about 100 new workers were hired, almost doubling the total. But prices began to sharply drop a few years later and the company had to terminate production of L-lysine in 2003 and convert the facility to its current, more-profitable products -- multiple kinds of industrial-grade amino acids that are sold for various uses, such as by the pharmaceutical industry and to make seasoning.

"We are not in the animal feed business anymore," Fujiwara said.

But he considers laying off those workers a low point.

"That was the hardest part of my life," he said. "My entire life. It was hard."

But now, Fujiwara calls this a "newborn" BioKyowa company. Prices on their new industrial-grade amino acids are much stronger than L-lysine, he said.

Meanwhile, Okada said his job is to build on what Fujiwara started.

"I understand my mission," he said. "We are to establish a more strong company."

He declined to answer how he plans to do that, saying plans are confidential.

While Fujiwara's background was in marketing and sales, Okada had worked in technology for 17 years in Japan before coming here.

After that, he moved to the production side and later was made president of a BioKyowa plant in Germany.

"I'm excited now," he said. "I believe in myself. I think my philosophy is communication, with the community and the workers both."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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